The Miscellaneous PC & vidya Games Thread

[Razgovory]

I also like the attitude of, "Combat Mission is so niche, it'll lever work on Steam!" Which is why Paradox, who were similarly niche, moved completely to Steam, because it was outselling all their other avenues, including their - formerly - own GamersGate, by a country mile.

(Bit of an unfortunate name for a store these days ...  )

Gamersgate also had a horrible setup. From what I recall it was either paypal (which I didn't have) or you had to setup some other system that would connect with your bank account. It lacked the direct credit card route - at least for cards we have here in the us.

Gamersgate never gave me trouble.  Battlefront did with their stupid license agreements and Matrix games gave a lot of headaches.  Steam has had it's problems, for instance their online mode doesn't always work, but nothing to bad.  Never had a problem with GOG.  Steam is becoming the VHS to the rest of the world's Betamax, and I really don't have much of a problem with it.

[garbon]

Becoming? It has already come.

[Syt]

Indeed. The only other store worth visiting these days is GOG, due to their focus on old/out of print games and indie titles.

EA's Origin? Only for their own titles.

And other stores often sell Steam codes, anyways.

[The Brain]

Naval Action looks pretty cool: http://youtu.be/p03tKexDjSU

I'm not sitting through all that. Is friendly fire always on in this game? kekekekek

[The Brain]

Does sound travel at realistic speed in Naval Action btw? It really bugged me in one of the naval games a while back that sound was instant.

[Razgovory]

Does sound travel at realistic speed in Naval Action btw? It really bugged me in one of the naval games a while back that sound was instant.

According to the people at Battlefront:  "The only thing faster than the Speed of Sound is the Speed of Greed."

http://www.battlefront.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1005&Itemid=257

[Syt]

Whoa. OOTP16 will have an MLB license. I've bought each iteration since OOTP9, but  haven't really played since 12, I think.

[Grey Fox]

That's very cool.

[Syt]

From screenshots it would appear that they don't have the rights to player likenesses, though.

[Scipio]

StarCrawlers beta. I kickstarted this. It's a space hulk crawler based in a hub, with a privateer sort of setting. Got some interesting stuff (psionics, rogue robots, hacking, etc.). Combat and movement is very reminiscent of Wizardry series. Still pretty rough, but distinctive art style and exploration.

[CountDeMoney]

From screenshots it would appear that they don't have the rights to player likenesses, though.

I don't think that kicks in until the license kicks in.

[Syt]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-08-07-godus-is-out-now-for-free-on-ios?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialoomph

Godus is now free for iOS. [...]

I feel for the Kickstart backers on this one, though.

Also, what happened with the dude who won that Cube thing where he gets to be supreme God of the game, and gets a share of the revenue?

Clusterfuck ahoy!

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/02/09/oh-godus-what-the-hells-going-on/

Hey, remember Godus?! It was successfully Kickstarted in 2012, despite launching with no video at all, as the name of "Peter Molyneux" still carried enough currency to raise over half a million pounds for his return to the god game genre. Just over two years have gone by, and mobile free-to-play versions of the game launched last year, but what state is the PC development in now? Molyneux has announced that he's now working on a new project, a mobile thing called The Trial, suggesting Godus is no longer his focus. And the team currently working on the game have recently acknowledged that they, "simply can't see us delivering all the features promised on the kickstarter page." Uh oh.

So what is the state of the development? It sounds as if the developers themselves do not quite know. Designer Konrad Naszynski has recently been added to the team and is being impressively frank about his experiences on the Godus message boards. As well as stating that he doesn't believe the Kickstarter promises are achievable, he added, "a lot of the multiplayer stuff is looking seriously shaky right now especially the persistent stuff like hubworld." And more recently he has posted to explain how "frustrated" he is with the speed at which he's able to bring change. The developer arrived by peculiar means, having played the Godus alpha and becoming concerned about the direction in which it was headed. He was given an unpaid position by Molyneux, he says, and after a year was finally appointed to a place where he should be able to influence the direction of the game. When trying to fix seriously underdeveloped aspects of the game, Naszynski explains that he had to choose something that seemed quickly achievable with minimal resources, so chose the story. He says that had he selected to overhaul the resource system, "I would have been told outright no."

[...]

As for those Kickstarter promises, it's not looking good. The silliest claim made was that it would be finished in "seven to nine months". That wasn't even true of the money-raking mobile versions, and with the PC game in Early Access since September 2013, it's been missed by a further 17 months on top. The Linux version, added as an achieved stretch goal, has shown no signs of appearing (and the game is built in an engine that doesn't support Linux). A "student forum" was promised, claiming to provide "feedback on your game design and any career advice you might need", but we can't find them. (In fact, 22Cans' forum is entirely disabled.) We've searched for items like the "Godus Making Of Book", received at certain pledge levels, and cannot find evidence of its existence.

[...]

One he says he regrets, and would not do again if he were to do it over. Perhaps rather surprisingly, and without apparent irony, Molyneux states that a Kickstarter causes one to over-promise at the start of development. He told Tech Radar,

"There's this overwhelming urge to over-promise because it's such a harsh rule: if you're one penny short of your target then you don't get it. And of course in this instance, the behaviour is incredibly destructive, which is 'Christ, we've only got 10 days to go and we've got to make £100,000, for fuck's sake, lets just say anything'. So I'm not sure I would do that again."

This rather considerably concerning statement on how he went about getting people's money doesn't seem to have slowed the developer down. His new game, The Trail, will be an "experience never seen before" according to the Fun And Serious Games Festival at which he announced it.

[...]

He goes on to explain that his new game will, "build on feelings and emotions untapped so far." The site also appears to attribute to Molyneux the statement that Godus, "lacked in narrative, progress and reward." A fascinating use of the past tense for a game still being sold, for £15, as Early Access.

And:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/02/10/22cans-confirm-godus-team-shrinkage-admit-mistakes/

[...]

Molyneux sits down with Jack Attridge and new Godus designer Konrad Naszynski, to explain what's happening with the game, in response to some extremely frank questions offered by the community:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0P9yYG0G5I

There are a few issues. Not least that the opening question, regarding whether Kickstarter goals will be met, is wildly ignored with irrelevant rambling on a number of other subjects, finishing with Molyneux and Attridge congratulating themselves for how well they've answered it.

A favourite moment comes at 1:25, with Naszynski's face when Molyneux declares that Naszynski "absolutely loves Godus". There's not even an attempt to pretend otherwise – and nor should there have been, with the new developer having already publicly stated that he fought to work at the company because he wanted to rescue it from being so bad. Naszynski also goes on to list the ways in which the game is falling far short of where it should be, in stark contrast to Molyneux's weary-sounding optimism.

Later in the video, Molyneux makes some really enormous statements, in the form of apologies. He says that if given the chance to do it over again, he would finish the PC version before releasing the mobile port. That's quite the claim, since he also states that it will likely take "months and months and months" to add in the scant few features they've said they'll work on with the now reduced Godus team, and the mobile version is what's been bringing in money. He also says,

"I take the point that some of the pledges should have been met, and that we should have taken the time to work on them."

Which is... astonishing. All of the pledges should have been met. If that's not going to happen, then Kickstarter's terms and conditions at the time of the Godus campaign suggest refunds should be offered – and the acknowledgement in the video above would seem like all the evidence that's necessary for backers who have not received pledges to claim one.

Once story has been added, we're told they will next begin work on overhauling the game's combat. Beyond that, nothing has been revealed. No mention is made of the multiplayer, nor the persistent hub world. And indeed what that means for the "winner" of Curiosity.

It would seem there is a lot more to be learned about what's happened with Godus. If you would like to contact RPS with details, send an email via my name above this article. We've tried contacting Peter Molyneux and 22cans but have so far heard nothing back.

[Valmy]

From screenshots it would appear that they don't have the rights to player likenesses, though.

If you play the 1885 season it won't bother you.

The Louisville Colonels will be champions of the Beer and Whisky League!

[Valmy]

Trusting Molyneux was a bad idea?  Shocking.

[Habbaku]

Trusting Molyneux was a bad idea?  Shocking.

It amazes me that anyone still buys anything he touches.